Florent Tribalat-Moreel

Photographer & Writer

The turtle ballet

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Location: Marseille

Nationality: France

Biography: Author/Photographer/Writer of my stories and yours, I studied photography at the Center of the Image of Quito (CIAF), in Ecuador, where I lived between 2011 and 2021. Digital and analog photography. Consulting and production of images and... MORE

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I spent part of the Covid-19 pandemic in a small village on the coast of Ecuador. There weren't many people here. You'd see a few locals and fishermen, but not many more. It seemed as if there wasn't really a pandemic. It was turtle birthing season. In the mornings, I'd walk through the nests, hoping to witness a miracle. I was lucky enough to sample them several times and to film them as best I could, freehand, lying in the sand.

It was a ballet of poetic slowness and awkwardness, a constant danger to reach the sea, to escape the claws of crabs, the beaks of birds and the deep holes dug by human footsteps. I spent weeks waiting for them, watching them roll, trying to turn around and reach the Pacific Ocean. I was moved by their fragility and strength.

The birth of turtles in Ecuador (Puerto Rico, Manabi, November 2020).
Created and edited by Florent Tribalat, for the "Jocotoco Ecuador" Foundation.
Original music: Keaton Henson - La Naissance (feat. Ren Ford)